Tag Archives: Jim Eigo

More delightful memories and stories from Dan Morgenstern. I’d asked him, “What was it like to buy records in the Forties?” — a scene that few people reading this post have experienced.

First-hand narrative: there’s nothing to compare with it.

Here’s another part of the story of Big Joe Clauberg, as excerpted from Amanda Petrusich’s excellent book, DO NOT SELL AT ANY PRICE.

I took my title for this post from Dan’s recollections of his first phonograph, a wind-up acoustic one, but it has larger meaning for me.

There is still something wondrous about going in to a shop that happens to have a pile of records — an antique store or something else — getting one’s hands dirty, going through a pile of mail-order classical records, red-label Columbias of Dorothy Shay, incomplete sets, and the like — to find a 1938 Brunswick Ellington, Teddy Wilson, or Red Norvo.

Later, the pleasure of going in to an actual record store and looking through the bins — name your dozen favorite artists — and finding something that you didn’t know existed — in my case, recordings of the Eddie Condon Floor Show on Queen-Disc. More recently, the same experience with compact discs at now vanished chain record stores.

All gone. The alternative? Stream forty hours of your cherished jive through one of the services that doesn’t pay the musicians. Oh, there are happy exceptions: the Blessed Mosaic Records. But nothing replaces finding treasure on your own.

And, in case the thought hasn’t yet occurred to you, Dan Morgenstern is one of those treasures.

Before the GPS and the smartphone, there were maps. You can still see people unfolding them on subway platforms, although in certain cities we are told that this is a huge neon sign saying I AM A TOURIST. PLEASE ROB ME.

But this 1946 map is gloriously different: a map of Chicago hot spots from 1914 to 1928, its co-creators the jazz scholar Paul Edward Miller and the pianist / composer Richard M. Jones. It’s selling for $400 at New York’s Argosy Bookshop: see details here.

Description: Map. Colored Lithograph. Measures 13.25″ x 19.25″.

Comments: This unique 1946 map of Chicago identifies the Chicago Jazz Spots from 1914 to 1928. Throughout, beautiful sketches depict famous landmarks and jazz scenes. Streets are identified and locations of jazz spots are noted. Two insets detail the establishments on 31st and State and 35th and State. The map, redrawn from the original by Paul Eduard Miller and Richard M. Jones appeared in the 1946 edition of “Esquire’s Jazz Book Year Book of the Jazz Scene”. The year book was an amazing period publication of jazz in its heyday, featuring photographs, articles, and more. Some of the articles that were included in the 1946 edition, along with this particular map, were “Thirty Years of Chicago Jazz”, “Chicago Jazz History”, “Esquire’s All-American Band”, etc. The Map is in good condition with some foxing and edge wear near centerfold. Linen backed.

Thanks to Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services for letting us know. Even with some foxing. You can find him at 845-986-1677, jim@jazzpromoservices.com, and his website is http://www.jazzpromoservices.com.

Many’s the happy hour I spent in Record World, Tower Records, Dayton’s, Happy Tunes, and more . . . perusing, considering, talking, hanging out, pouncing on something I’d never seen, wondering whether to spend twenty dollars (1972 dollars!) for BUCK MEETS RUBY or EASY NOW. I grew up in suburbia, where every department store had a record section. Those days are mostly gone, although I live near enough to Mr. Cheapo’s to visit, and Academy Records and Second Hand Rose still offer New York thrills.

But here’s novelist Nick Hornby’s commentary, very much to the point:

“Yes, yes, I know it’s easier to download music, and probably cheaper. But what’s playing on your favourite download store when you walk into it? Nothing. Who are you going to meet in there? Nobody. Where are the notice boards offering flat shares and vacant slots in bands destined for superstardom? Who’s going to tell you to stop listening to that and start listening to this? Go ahead and save yourself a couple of quid. The saving will cost you a career, a set of cool friends, musical taste and, eventually, your soul. Record stores can’t save your life. But they can give you a better one.”

I would disagree only with Hornby’s understatement: I think record stores did save my life, or, at least, they helped me find something that has continues to make me very happy.

And he is also correct about the social context: a Jiffy bag with a CD from Amazon through the mail is a great thing, and I am delighted to receive one, but it just isn’t the same as visually eavesdropping on what the fellow in the next browser is looking at or (one afternoon in Dayton’s) getting yelled at my the cashier for making an insufficiently reverent remark about the late Bud Powell record he was playing. Yesterdays, oh, yesterdays!

In case you weren’t paying close attention, last Monday was Groundhog Day.

Punxsutawney Phil came out of his burrow, saw his shadow, the news cameras, the reporters . . . and went back in, an omen of six more weeks of winter — to say nothing of acid indigestion, sinking investments, tinnitus, poor cellphone reception, and more.

But I am patient and Phil and I go back a long time. I waited until all the media went home, amused myself by draining my thermos of Trader Joe’s coffee, and waited. Then Phil gingerly came out again, after I’d assured him that it was safe: even PBS and NPR had gone home.

He looked weary; he always does after these appearances. But he gestured to me to come closer. After we’d exchanged hellos and I’d asked about the family (they’re all fine), he whispered, “Look. Of course the news is bad. There’s going to be bankruptcies and not enough hot water in the kitchen sink. But don’t despair. Hope is in sight.”

“What do you mean, Phil?” I asked.

“I’m getting out of here — hitching a ride with two jazz-loving woodchucks I know — in time to be in Manhattan on Thursday, February 19, at 8 PM. We’re going to sneak in to Jack Kleinsinger’s Highlights in Jazz concert downtown. It’s his 36th anniversary! And Jack is so caught up in the music he never notices us. It’s where these concerts always take place: the Borough of Manhattan Community College at 199 Chambers Street, www.tribecapac.org. David Ostwald and his Louis Armstrong Centennial Band will be there — David on tuba, Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Anat Cohen on clarinet, Kevin Dorn on drums. And two of the music’s most memorable players will be there — Dick Hyman and Joe Wilder! Maybe they’ll even do ‘Seventy-Six Trombones,’ my favorite!”

“You humans have difficulty with good news, don’t you?” Phil hissed. “And, knowing Jack, there might be a surprise guest or two.”

The moral of the story: don’t crawl into your own personal burrow just because the news is rotten and the winds are cold. Be sure to join us on February 19: I think the Beloved and I are in row H.

“Hasta luego!” as Phil always says — even though his Spanish accent is execrable.

Tickets for individual concerts may be ordered for $35.00, students $32.50. Make checks payable to: Highlights in Jazz – Mail to: Highlights in Jazz, 7 Peter Cooper Rd., New York, NY 10010
(Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope, which I usually ALMOST forget to do.)